Burn Crazy BURN


backyard-trash-burning-2.jpg
Last week I was talking to a forest ranger who told me that burning of trash sometimes starts forest fires. The President's son, Beau, was exposed to a burn pit in Baghdad and came down with stage four neuroblastoma, a brain tumor.

My expertise in exploring burning waste was when I helped build a used oil recycling facility in the middle of Alexandria. Unfortunately, used oil may contain numerous other automotive fluids that when incinerated contaminate the environment. Roughly, 110 million gallons of used oil is burned as fuel in 75,000 small used oil space heaters. Since 1999, Virginia has given a 50 percent tax credit for up to $4,000 for the purchase of these heaters.

In 2002, I was reading a brochure written by my county fire department. I was amazed how it allowed for the burning of household trash. I researched all manners of how best to proceed. After working with my fire marshal in Shenandoah County for more than nine months in the hope to develop a brochure informing citizens what is best to do, he directed me to contact Virginia environmental regulators.

Back in 2004, I approached the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Virginia Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America. I requested to make Virginians aware of the dangers of burning trash. For example, do not burn magazines or plastic in their wood stoves. I also requested the state develop regulations for backyard or barrel burning to include in the Virginia Solid Waste Management Regulations. Neither organization was interested in addressing this issue then.  Below is what is allowed

If you live in an area that does not have a local burning ordinance and you do not have curbside pickup, you can burn leaves and some household trash.

Many states now in this country have banned this activity.

backyard-trash-burning-2.jpg

Plain black ink newspaper and uncoated papers, such as printer paper, are safe to burn. However, colored paper, wrapping paper, newspaper inserts and magazines are not safe to burn. These items contain metals that can give off toxic fumes when burned. Cardboard can release toxic chemicals when burned, especially if it has been printed with a logo, plastic tapes and other coatings. Any cardboard with wax or colored print should be kept out of the fire. 

Plastics are also unsafe. Any type of household plastic, whether it’s bubble wrap or a plastic cup, should not be burned in a fireplace. Plastics release toxic chemicals, including hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, dioxins and heavy metals, that are dangerous for your health and bad for the environment. These emissions are known to cause respiratory ailments and stress human immune systems, and they’re potentially carcinogenic.

Other items not to burn: tires, glues, treated lumber and driftwood (salt is an issue), rubber, paints, metals, electronics, painted woods, petroleum products and other forms of trash. 

We all share the same air. It would be wise for the U.S. to establish a national and global public awareness campaign to lessen  burning. With the greater population and the planet getting hotter, we must lessen air pollution. Toxic, uncontrolled incineration of waste threatens our health, economy and our greater wellbeing. Open burning of waste is a difficult thing to quantify, however, and we must motivate ourselves to prevent this from happening if we wish to breathe easier in the future

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The PRO Zone

I was just at the US Open as their guest. My mentor, Pauline Betz Addie, was inducted in their Court of Champions, winning four times in the 1940s.  In walking around several mindless cell phone users nearly collided with me. When I realize I am mindless, I celebrate the gift of the now, also called the present. Playing tennis has been a form of meditation for me. I call  the “PRO Zone " The acronym PRO- Pause, Relax and Open helps my game — arriving fully to play tennis. By relaxing in the present, I allow the distracting “mental” weather systems to pass. This allows me to greet each new point. Increasing my concentration, I give my fullest intention to pay attention.  When I “pause” between points and slow down-- becoming more responsive and less reactive increases my concentration during play. Next, getting myself to “relax” and focusing on mentally showing up can both lessen my errors and my anxiety  My introduction to mindful tennis first began when I asked my f...
Read more

Green Spaces Provide Great Economic Potential

This is a guest column thanks to Jack Lundee - "Taking a more progressive green approach." Some of the more heavily discussed topics of early 2010 include obesity, green infrastructure, clean water, and more. In particular, the addition and/or substitution of green spaces have been quite controversial as of late. Senior resident of Urban Land Institute Ed T. McMahon states "Green space adds value to property." Not only would these areas of conservation drive economic trends upward, but they also improve the overall health of the surrounding community. For example, substituting things like golf courses with conservation areas would essentially increase surrounding property value while diminishing overpriced maintenance fees. The same holds true for airports and other large acre-eating developments. Some of these areas are already abandoned or unkempt. For instance, park and recreational areas that were once highly visited have become urban wastelands. In an articl...
Read more

Celebrate Starshine

The shortest day is upon us. This is an opportunity to celebrate the most startime.  I embrace this starlight to light my inner candle. Dance under the Milky Way, allowing the trillions of lights filtering into the trillions of cells within you.   We are all children of the stars! It is a quantum pool of loving kindness. 93% of the mass in our body is stardust originating from giant red stars by the Big Bang 5 billion years ago. We share 97% of the same atoms. All the basic elements of life, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, calcium, and iron, were created before the earth. We share from these red giant stars more of this stardust than the asteroids or the planet Mars, All living and nonliving things on Earth, from water, crystals, rocks, stones,plants, animals, insects, birds, fish consists, of this stardust The First People are and were mystical stars watchers. These heavens are the homes of ancestors, animals, plants, and spirits.    Stargazing allows me to play with the ...
Read more